O’Connor out to make impact

Fly-half Niall O’Connor is not giving up hope that he is still an integral part of Ulster coach Mark Anscombe’s overall plans.

The former Ireland ‘A’ squad member was pivotal in ushering Ulster over the line in last week’s near miss against Zebre when his 17 points with the boot and expert game management saw the RaboDirect Pro 12 table-toppers squeeze home 27-25.

O’Connor, whose home sickness brought him back to Ulster from Connacht this season, will get another chance to prove his worth when he lines up against Treviso tonight as Anscombe’s men attempt to make it nine wins out of nine and keep their six-point advantage at the top.

The 25-year-old is joined at half-back by pint-sized Paul Marshall who along with deposed international winger Andrew Trimble, have been released from the Ireland training camp. They flew into Parma yesterday to join the squad who had remained in Italy following last Sunday’s game.

The return of Marshall and Trimble and the inclusion of Peter Nelson at full-back sees three changes behind the scrum, while there is a new front-row with Tom Court, Rob Herring and Declan Fitzpatrick starting and Roger Wilson leading the side at number eight.

O’Connor, though, sees Treviso as tough opposition, given they defeated Ulster last season at Ravenhill.

“I think they will be similar to Zebre, they have a big pack and while they will have a few internationals missing it could be a similar side to what played Connacht a couple of weeks ago, and they were impressive enough.

“We worked hard on our failings of last week, so hopefully we have learned the lessons well,” said O’Connor who wants his coach to have a few difficult decisions when the internationals return. “Mark has spent the last couple of weeks emphasising the point about boys taking their opportunity. He said that individually you want to make him have to make the decision that when the internationals do come back, that it will be difficult for him to make a call.”